


Desert daydreams

by transcoranic



Series: Shiromatt week [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Day 2, M/M, ShiroMatt Week 2016, pidge (briefly), they/them pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 14:30:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8147515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transcoranic/pseuds/transcoranic
Summary: Matt loves the desert. Shiro loves Matt.





	

Shiro stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Matt laughs at him from the driver’s seat, “You don’t have to close it that hard!”

“Sorry.” He was grinning and so was Matt. “So are you going to stay in there all day or are we leaving?”

“What, missing me already?”

Shiro shrugged on his backpack and closed his eyes. Around him, the desert stretched for miles. The air smelled like dust and sage. He licked his lips, they were already drying out. The floppy hat protected his face from the sun, but the light stained his eyelids red as he tried to fix every detail in his mind. His pack rested on his shoulders, comfortable and familiar. He was wearing civilian clothes, for once, and he relished in their flexibility. 

Matt’s voice shook Shiro out of his reverie. “Now who’s the one waiting?”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

***

When he first came to the desert, Shiro was shocked by how alive it was. He’d grown up thinking that deserts were dry and barren. It wasn’t true. The desert just worked on a different timeline than the rest of the world. 

He used to hate it. He used to hate the dryness and the dust that got into everything and the pounding sun. And then he’d met Matt. He’d taken Shiro out, day after day, showing him the plants, how this was sage and that was creosote. Shiro had never met someone so in love with a landscape than Matt and the desert. Once, he’d asked why Matt had chosen to join the Garrison and leave the desert behind. Matt had laughed, “It’s just another kind of desert out there!”

***

The trail cut through the brush, well-trodden, cut into a ditch by rain and the passage of a thousand feet. Shiro liked to think of it as their path. The one they had walked every weekend for months. As the pair hiked, they chatted about their life, training at the Garrison, their upcoming mission to Kerberos. Sometimes they lapsed into companionable silence, just enjoying the scenery and the other’s company.

***

They stopped for lunch on a huge rock, sticking up out of the desert. From the top, they could see for miles, out towards the mountains and stretching back along the road to the Garrison. There were no other hikers, no one alive to break the silence as Shiro pressed his lips against Matt’s, tasting dust and sage, just like the desert.

***

Sometimes they played a game, Matt would point out a plant and Shiro would have to name it. If he was right he earned a kiss. Shiro was very good by now, but neither of them minded. They kept hiking, aiming for a tall mesa in the distance. It was clearly in view by now, a clear red table above the flat plain. This was their place, their real place. This was the place that Shiro most firmly associated with Matt, those long nights on the mesa, looking at the stars.

***

They reached the shadow of the mesa about an hour before sunset. From this point, they left the established hiking trail, following a tributary up the steep side of the rock formation. There were steps, cut into the sandstone and reinforced with weathered wood. Years of wind and passing feet had worn the middles of the steps down, leaving the edges high. Shiro had counted the steps once, 317. By the time they reached the top, the sun was touching the horizon, staining everything red.

Shiro loved the desert sunsets. The colors were bright, reds and oranges bleeding into the purple sky. The light echoed around the horizon, reflecting so the east was almost as red as the west. The fading sunlight caught in Matt’s hair, sparkling copper. Every time, Shiro fell in love all over again, with the desert and the man who had taught him to love it. 

The temperature dropped quickly, and the two huddled together. They sat together as, one by one, the stars appeared. Their breaths fell into sync as they lay, silent, awed by the sheer size of the universe. Every night was just like the first.

***

Matt had dragged Shiro out on the camping trip, “Come on, it’ll be fun!” Shiro deeply regretted agreeing. They’d walked five miles in the scorching sun and it was still a mile to the mesa. Matt was more excited than should have been humanly possible encouraging Shiro to just make the last push. Shiro took another sip out of his water bottle and soldiered on.

They reached the top of the mesa just as the last of the sunset disappeared. Shiro dropped to the ground, exhausted. Matt, on the other hand, was pulling blankets out of his pack. He stretched out on his back and patted the blanket, “come over here,” Shiro did, “look.”

“At what?”

Matt pointed at the sky, where the first stars were appearing.

Shiro stared in wonder. He’d never seen so many stars in his life. The constellations that he’d memorized as a kid were shining, hard to pick out among so many shining points of light. The Milky Way shone, not just milky but tinted in soft blues and oranges, like a postcard. He shivered. Without thinking, he pressed his body against Matt’s, appreciating his warmth. Matt fit himself against Shiro.

They stayed like that, maybe for hours, before Matt’s whisper reached his ears. “So, do you like it?”

“Yes, of course I do.” Shiro paused, “but not as much as I like you.”

Matt laughed, “Shiro, that’s gay.” And then they were pressed together, lips locked, bodies entwined, together under the stars.

***

_“Shiro? Earth to Shiro!” A voice. Matt’s? No. Shiro shook himself. “Shiro? Are you there?”_

_He put it together. Pidge was calling over the comm. It sounded like they had been trying to get his attention for a while. “Pidge, I copy”_

_“You almost crashed, are you okay?”_

_“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just daydreaming.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Look! I made two things! I feel so accomplished. Hatemail is appreciated.


End file.
